Books, television and film are such strange things. If done well, they create worlds that we get completely lost in; characters so multifaceted that we judge their actions as if they were real. It is only within these fictitious worlds that we are allowed to act as voyeurs, and it's not perverse. Only in respect to these faux realities, would it be okay for me to hate a character so much that I could shout at the television: "OH MY GOD, JUST KILL HER ALREADY," and [potentially] not be seen as a psychotic or a monster.
But we're not there yet.
This episode picked up where the last left off: dead escorts and their customers. Much was lost, including Diosa's security deposit and some crystal vases. People were crying; they wanted to know why-oh-why all of this was happening. Shrugs from Jax and Gemma; they had no idea. Wink.
One of those effected by the influx of craziness, was Jax's oldest son, Abel. You know how I feel about this kid. They just keep. Giving. Him. Lines. He got his very own "tense" scene where he wielded a hammer and flipped out because he wanted to go home and felt he needed to protect his younger brother. He banged the hammer a bit and shouted. The adults - you know, the people in charge - looked nervous. I'm not quite sure why though.
He's not the kid from The Omen; snatch the hammer out of his hand and send him on his way. I mean, I get it. Like father, like son. Whatever. Jax is barely ever with him. Where'd he pick up this false aggressively protective vibe? I DON'T BELIEVE YOU, ABEL.
The grenades, explosions and hand holding lead to Chibs getting to sleep with Sherriff Jarry. Hooray! Later in the episode, they have a talk about what their relationship (is it too early to call it that?) meant. Initially he lies to Jarry and tells her that SAMCRO had nothing to do with what happened to Diosa. Jarry decided to stop playing stupid and call him out of how that couldn't possibly be true. He needed her to back off; they had a monetary agreement after all. Jarry explained that she only took the money to cover her overtime and to make the criminals she was semi working with feel more comfortable; that way they'd be more cooperative. Charming is one heck of a town, no? Chibs was a little taken aback. Sure he could imply that paying her off meant that she should stay off his club's back, but how could she have ulterior motives of her own? Did their night together mean nothing? In the end they kissed and made up, and all I could do was wonder about his beard.
Juice took a little trip to the motel vending machine and caught a glimpse of a newspaper article about the Diosa killings. He was spotted by an Asian guy who seemed a bit too interested in him, so he fled back to his room. It's in this room that we said goodbye to Weepy Juice. He'd finally snapped. When the Asian guy let himself into Juice's room later that day, Juice shot and killed him. He also insisted that the guy's corpse stop staring at him before shooting him a few more times. When Gemma and Unser came by to take Juice out of town, he was pretty calm about the entire ordeal. After all, the Chinese had shot up Diosa and then this random Asian guy caught sight of him when he was supposed to be in hiding. He had to kill him. He probably worked for Lin, because all Asian people worked for Lin. Except this one had a set of master keys and worked for the motel. Oops. Gemma seemed genuinely worried. This was probably because she realized what we all did: Juice had fallen prey to severe paranoia and would only become more and more hilariously frantic.
Lin was done with the shenanigans. He confronted Nero, who had been trying in vain to keep the peace until then. He told him that he was fully aware that Jax had been plotting against it and he was over it. He demanded Nero bring Jax to him STAT or he'd kill Nero and his son. Nero, a character who actually seems to care about his offspring, had a meeting with Jax that lead to punches being thrown. The fight didn't last too long though and they sat down to chat. Nero explained that Lin was going to kill his son if he didn't provide him with our scowling, blond leader. Jax said he understood the predicament he was in, but that LIn had ordered the hit on Tara and he had revenge to seek.
At this point everyone was either lying or acting based on "facts" that were actually lies.
Everything was extra awkward for Nero, since he was dating Gemma. He couldn't just hand over her kid to save his, could he? No. I mean, she wouldn't. [Insert eye roll here] So Nero lies to Lin, Lin meets up with Jax and Chibs in a semi surrender scenario that ended up being a ruse so Jax and Lin could duke it out in the streets. Jax yelled about Lin having Tara killed and Lin didn't know what he was talking about. Jax wasn't concerned with reading facial cues though. VENGEANCE! KICKING! STREET FIGHTS! However, the authorities were on the way and the one on one got busted up. SAMCRO fled, but Lin and his men were arrested.
It was during a car ride to who knows where that Juice and Gemma hit a turning point in their relationship. Juice had fallen asleep during the car ride and when he woke up, he realized they were driving in the wrong direction. When he asked Gemma about it, she had all sorts of tales to spin about why they had to take a different route and who would help them along the way. There was a beautiful moment where you got to see a transition in Juice; the exact moment when he knew Gemma was lying and was probably taking him out to the middle of nowhere to kill him. But remember, we had already said goodbye to Weepy. He, too, was done with the shenanigans and in pure Sutter fashion, we were left with a scene where he had a gun on Gemma and she was begging for her.
It was there that I yelled at the screen because I'm ready to welcome the end of her existence. Granted, they probably won't let Juice have that kill. Imagine the blow out to come when Jax finds out his mother killed his wife and, through her lies, caused so many other senseless deaths! He'll need a living body to rage out on, so no, Juice probably won't kill Gemma.
However, people were killed in the episode's final minutes. The SAMCRO boys mowed down several Chinese men at the end of the episode; a not-so-subtle reminded that their fight with Lin's crew was not over. What will happen now that Lin knows why Jax is trying to ruin him? I don't see them hugging it out.
What do you think of this charming little war? Let me know in the comments below.
Photo Credit: FX
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